Description

Mission Critical is a first-person graphic adventure. It is 2134, and the human race has been at war for 50 years since the Alliance declared independence from the stifling rule of the UN and its anti-technology policies. The Alliance is losing the war to the UN's greater numbers, but recently, Alliance scientists discovered an alien artifact on the planet Persephone.

You are onboard the USS Lexington on its top-secret mission to investigate the artifact, and hopefully change the course of the war to the Alliance's favor. But the UN's spies are everywhere, and before the introductory movie is over, the Lexington has been ambushed and Captain Dayna has been forced to sacrifice almost the entire crew of the Lexington to destroy the attacking cruiser Dharma, leaving only you behind, unconscious.

When you awaken, you discover yourself alone on a damaged ship. You'll have to patch the holes, prevent reactor overload, and bring the ship's computer back on-line before you can attempt to successfully complete the Lexington's original mission.

Until the Lexington's condition is stabilized, there's a real-time clock ticking away (you get several hours). There are lots of inventory-based puzzles to be solved. You'll also have to defend the Lexington from UN attacks in a simple 3D real-time strategy game (which has an adjustable difficulty level if you have trouble).

Eventually, you'll be able to land on Persephone, investigate the artifact, and use its power to save mankind.

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Trivia

A novel set in the game universe, Mission Critical: Death of the Phoenix, was published through the Proteus imprint of Prima Publishing. It was written by Paul C. Chafe and first published in January of 1996. Its ISBN is 1-7615-023403 and the rear cover blurb reads as follows:

He assumed deadly Hype research ended with the war.He was wrong.

He assumed they'd forgotten about him.He was wrong.

He assumed nothing could survive in the frozen tunnels beneath Mare Stellatis.He was wrong.

The Prison Within the Prison

U.N. Captain Lewis Tyrell was captured by the enemy, but not before he accomplished his mission: to secure a vial of the experimental cyberlink drug Hype. If the U.N. had won the war he would have been a hero. Instead, when it ended, he was released with no place to go. Until they came for him.

Convicted by false trial, Tyrell is exiled to lunar penal colony Mare Stellatis where escape is impossible and those who try are enslaved in the underground ice-ore mines forever. The situation seems hopeless until Tyrell meets Dr. Jania Sycel, a former systems designer who broke the final barrier between the human mind and computer technology. Together they have the technical expertise they'll need to get out alive... but escape may only trap them in the hands that wield Hype!